Pratap Simha Tag

Note: This is my translation of Pratap Simha’s column 18 May 2013 column in Kannada Prabha. An incident comes to mind. The incident is recorded in Shanti Bhushan’s autobiography, Courting Destiny. The incident occurred sometime in 1978. Morarji Desai had completed an year as Prime Minister. He began to face threats to his chair. The powerful Janata leader and Home Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh was eyeing Prime Ministership from the beginning. Another leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram too had Prime Ministerial ambitions. Rebellion was brewing at a steady pace. There wereRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s column in Kannada Prabha entitled, Menake Bandu Kuniyuvavaregu Vishwamitra Mahatapaswiyaagidda. BJPya katheyu haage aaytu! published on 11 May 2013. Who do we need to blame amongst these: B.S. Yeddyurappa, K.S. Eshwarappa, Jagadish Shettar, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj, Lal Krishna Advani, and Nitin Gadkari? Who do we hold accountable? Was the Karnataka BJP reduced to this pathetic state thanks to just one person? Or was it the combined “efforts” of these leaders that led to the ignominious end of the first BJP GovernmentRead More

This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s Kannada Prabha column titled Tippuvannu dweshisabekendalla, satya tiliyali endu, published on 9 March 2013. Comments and criticism welcome as always. Image courtesy: Kannada Prabha “I’ll give you a fresh sample of a lie uttered by a writer. In light of the opposition to the proposal to establish a University in Srirangapatana named after Tipu, this writer has falsely claimed that Tipu was a hater of Hindus, and that he had forcibly converted 71,000 Hindus to Islam. When I heard this, I immediately suspectedRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s piece entitled ??????? ????????? ???????? ????, ???? ???????? ?????????????? ??????? that appeared in Kannada Prabha on 23 February, 2013. Image Courtesy: Kannada Prabha 2 May, 2011 Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was flushed out by the United States and gunned down. Not only did the US extract its revenge, it didn’t cremate Laden’s body—it simply chucked his dead body in the sea. Predictably, everybody did expect Al Qaida to take their revenge against America in turn. Al QaidaRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s piece that appeared in today’s Kannada Prabha. Girish Karnad image courtesy: IBN Live. The Mumbai Lit fest on Friday witnessed major drama when veteran actor and theatre artist Girish Karnad slammed Nobel prize laureate VS Naipaul and called him anti-Muslim. Karnad, who was present at the lit-fest on Friday to conduct a class on theatre, spoke at length about Naipaul. The first paragraph of CNN-IBN’s news report makes it clear that the purpose of Girish Karnad attending the Mumbai Literature Live! festivalRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s original Kannada Prabha piece titled Baaibittare Banna Bayalaaguttademba Bhayave Manmohan Singh published last Saturday. Hazaron jawabon se acchi hai khamoshi meri Na jaane kitne sawalon ke aabroo rakhe So please answer us: how did this loot of epic proportions, of Rs. 1.86 lakh crores, occur right under your nose? When someone asks, “will you please answer the voters who’ve elected you,” you respond with “my silence is greater than a thousand questions.” Does this how the Prime Minister of the world’sRead More

NOTE: This is my translation of Pratap Simha’s piece titled Hindugale Haedigalaagiruvaaga Anyarannu Doori Phalavenu that appeared in Kannada Prabha on August 25, 2012. As always, comments and criticism are welcome. It has been called brain drain or flight of talent. Much noise has been made against it. It has been held responsible for this nation’s continued backwardness. But then, no matter what, in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s decades, people who had dreams of building a bright future for themselves, people who embarked on a quest to find careerRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s column titled, Deshapremakkinta doddade dharmaprema? which appeared in Kannada Prabha on August 18, 2012. The picture used in this piece is taken from the original. Comments and criticism are welcome as always. August 8, in the Indian Parliament: “I warn the Central Government; I warn the honourable Members over here… If proper rehabilitation [Of Bangladeshi Muslims] does not take place, you be ready for a third wave of radicalisation among Muslim youth.” The person who said this wasn’t some Mullah but theRead More

Note: This is the translation of Pratap Simha’s piece entitled Narendra Modi Haniyalu Congress Hidida Daari Yenthaaddu? that appeared in Kannada Prabha on 21 July, 2012. Translation is entirely mine and has the author’s approval. You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wellsPumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just likeRead More

Note: This is a translation of journalist Pratap Simha’s original essay titled Matte Eddiruva Hale Vivadada Nepadallaadaru Avarannu Nenapisikollabekenisitu Ashte (Literal: Felt like remembering him again in the wake of the controversy that has erupted again) in Kannada in May 2009, published in Vijaya Karnataka. Translated with permission from the author. Dates and events appearing in this piece relate to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The whispers had begun to do rounds before last January (Ed: January of 2008): Kalyan Singh is all set to quit the BJP. He isRead More

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Preface In an interesting article on Narendra Modi, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan (link courtesy Nitin) concludes that contextual morality is the one magic explanation for all ills that have plagued India for more than 100 years. He says …Narendra Modi is our

The image of India as caste-cow-curry seems to have receded a bit despite the exertions of Indian gatekeepers of the West to perpetuate it. Of the three, the first is definitely the most favourite stick to beat India. However, there

Great men are known for greater quirks. So it is with Karunanidhi–I leave his greatness to both your imagination and evaluation. A brief background before this. In the Hindu tradition, one of the ways greatness is measured is by suffixing

This BBC report barely manages to conceal its glee over a recent farce ceremony where “hundreds of Hindu Dalits” converted to Buddhism or Christianity. Dissecting the BBC’s sleazy reportage is not the focus of this post.

Introduction Ananda Coomaraswamy was featured in this blog earlier. He remains one of the most staunch defenders of the Indian tradition in the mould of what David Frawley calls an Intellectual Kshatriya. Coomaraswamy wrote a series of articles about the

Read Part 1 After observing how AKR leaves us confounded with academic jargon and widely deviating from his original theme, I’ll continue the same examination a tad more. A commenter helpfully added some valuable information about AKR’s corruption of the

Read Field Notes 1 on Ellora for a backgrounder. The Ajanta Caves The well-known story of how John Smith, a British officer belonging to the Madras army regiment, (re)discovered Ajanta caves doesn’t bear repitition. However, it suffices to say that

A few weeks ago, I made a hurried list that broadly categorized contemporary Hindus based on certain general parameters. Gurcharan Das of India Unbound fame adds to this list by slotting himself into a new category: Liberal Hindu. Much of

Ed: Bhartruhari seems to have spent a considerable portion of his life preparing a catalogue of fools. Here’s one more verse on that, perhaps the last. Varam Parvatadurgeshu Bhraantam Vanacaraih Saha| Na Moorkhajanasamparkah Surendrabhavaneshvapi|| How agreeable it is to wander

Recall my series on Indology? Dr. N.S. Rajaram throws more light on the pathetic state of this discipline, which is all but extinct in the Western academia. WITHIN THE past year, the Sanskrit Department at Cambridge University and the Berlin

Preface Whatever I’ve read on Shunyavada was several years ago and done in a semi-interested spirit. Add to it my phenomenal memory; all hazy, and muddled. Until recently when I felt compelled to turn the pages again, seriously this time.